Rob Garner's new book Search and Social: The Definitive Guide to Real-Time Content Marketing outlines strategies and tactics for businesses to take full advantage of the opportunity in content, instant engagement, search visibility and social community available online. In this interview on the opportunities of integrated search-social marketing, Garner explains:

Why you can't afford to silo your SEO and social marketing efforts.

The biggest missed opportunities for business in real-time search and social content marketing.

How to effectively transfer consumer engagement from one channel to another.

Keyword research shouldn't be a single course of action, where the tools do all the work. Keyword research should be driven by business conversations that allow you to make intelligent and informed decisions about the keywords you target, how you target them and when. In this article, we look at how to marry a marketing mindset with keyword research to:

Have the right conversations about the business so you can expand on the keyword research.

Know where the business is headed and how it will affect your keywords and SEO campaigns.

Understand the organization and its offerings thoroughly so you know the proper usage of keywords and best course of action for content.

Enhanced Campaigns offers functionality that many say are good for some businesses, like local brick and mortars, but not all businesses that use AdWords. The point of dissension seems to mainly lie in the fact that tablet devices and desktops are now treated as one.

On one hand, Enhanced Campaigns makes account management streamlined by reducing the number of campaigns a person has to manage from device to device. On the other, tablet devices often saw a lower CPC than desktop.

Google stated in the announcement that “… as devices converge, consumer behaviors on tablets and desktops are becoming very similar.” Some advertisers believe the new lumping together of devices is just one way Google is taking control away from them, especially since there currently isn't an opt-in to Enhanced Campaigns -- currently it’s default. A petition is circulating asking Google AdWords to give advertisers more options with Enhanced Campaigns.

Enhanced Campaigns is currently rolling out on all accounts; Google states this roll-out is to be complete by mid-2013.

Education Matters Protect Yourself from Penalties with SEO Education

We get too many inquiries from business owners in dire straights. Their website was once a major cause of new clients calling or coming to the door. But now, it has disappeared from Google or Bing. No rankings. No calls. No new customers.

"How could this happen after I trusted an SEO to improve my website?"

"When he told me to buy a bunch of domains and point them all to my website, I believed he knew best."

"This has been my business for 25 years. It's my whole life. If I can't get more leads through my website, what will I do?"

We've heard the stories of misinformed business owners falling victim to search snake-oil salesman too many times. And for all the stories we hear, there are many more we don't.

You can avoid the fate of the uninformed victim. You can protect yourself from the devastating effect of Google ranking penalties levied for manipulative over-optimization through education.

Bruce Clay's SEO training and one-day SEO workshops at SMX Conferences will give you the background to make smart search marketing decisions for your business. Bruce will explain fundamentals of how search engines rank websites, review opportunities for your business to gain presence in Google, and clearly define spam practices to avoid.

The upcoming SMX West conference and expo in San Jose, Calif., is your next great opportunity on the West Coast to take charge of your business online - from how it's viewed and rated by search engines to how it convinces visitors that come to your site and the community you interact with on social sites like Facebook and Yelp.

Attending SMX West is the most basic and complete education you can receive on the many facets of Internet marketing. The SEO Workshop hosted by Bruce Clay at SMX West gives you the foundation for success in search. And you can take it on its own or as a complement to your conference attendance.

It's a one-two punch that will knock your understanding of marketing your business online out of the park. Don't miss it in San Jose March 11 to 14.

Special Offers on Bruce Clay's SEO Workshop at SMX

Save 10% on the cost of SMX West registration with discount code SMXWbruceclay13.

MediaCom Melbourne managing director Phil Phelan has stepped down and former Carat chief executive Peter Barrie will take over.

Shindigs

In San Francisco on February 27, PR News holds its Digital PR Next Practices Summit, a one-day event covering ways for public relations professionals to use social media, media connections, content marketing and search visibility to boost communications.

PR News will also present a one-day PR boot camp on the basics of press release writing, media relationship building, online crisis management and social media community building in Miami, Fla., on March 18.

SearchFest 2013, Portland's premier search marketing and social media conference, takes place on February 22.

SMX West will take on San Jose from March 11 to 13. Bruce Clay, Inc. will be exhibiting in booth #406. Use code SMXW13bruceclay for a 10% discount. And don't forget to sign up for Bruce Clay's SEO workshop on March 14.

PubCon South hits New Orleans from April 22 to 25, guaranteeing attendees social media and search marketing education in the Big Easy.

Google announced a new feature in Google Analytics, Solution Gallery. This feature will allow for advanced reports and segmentation especially useful for campaigns dedicated to branding, ecommerce, lead generation and more.

Facebook's Graph Search made a splash as the invite-only beta search product that lets users search their network with filters such as location, likes and interests.

Following a decline in popularity, RIM hopes to attract consumers to the smartphone brand with new software, BB10, and a new line of BlackBerry handsets.

LinkedIn appears to be Wall Street's favorite social network, exceeding analysts fourth-quarter financial results announced earlier this month. The stock has tripled since its IPO in May 2011.

Facebook's reported 40% growth over the year in its fourth-quarter results. The company said it would focus on features and products core to the consumer experience in the near future. The Facebook Gift shop was not expected to be a major revenue generator, bringing into question the introduction of an arguably lacking Facebook Card gift card.

In an upcoming book, Google chairman Eric Schmidt confirms the Google+ network acts as an identity verification network for the search engine. Content from verified identities will be preferred to content from a non-verified source, meaning that SEOs should verify identity of content authors for optimal search performance.

A new version of Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was recently introduced for consideration by U.S. Congress. An activist group submitted 300,000 signatures to petition CISPA pointing to abuse potential and privacy violations.

SEOToolSet Updates

Each month, our developers make improvements to SEOToolSet V5 to ensure users have a more efficient experience. The following updates were made this month:

Added Portugal to the list of countries that we monitor.

Fixed a bug in the Research Summary that would cause an error when re-running the tool.

Fixed an bug where the password would reset in certain instances without the user triggering a reset.

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